If it traveled more than 100 miles to my plate, chances are I don't want to eat it :(

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Today we had great intentions of getting the rest of the volunteer strawberry plants that my wife has painstakenly potted into the ground today. I am usually up with the sun so I didn't set my alarm. Sadly, I overslept the drop off time frame for my bags of home made tortilla chips at the farmers market. Le Sigh......

So.......... I hop in the bath tub and await for the rest of the house to start waking up. I was reading Grid Down - Reality bites by Bruce "Buckshot". Very interesting book, and I love the parts about trapping and how the traps were set out. That sent me chasing squirrels till the rest of the house woke up.

What's chasing squirrels? It's when I go looking for information on the 'net or in books just because something interested me. A Pot of tea later I was finished, and the kids were up.

It was almost 9:30-10:00 when I realized the sun still hadn't come up. It wasn't raining when I let the dogs out earlier.. but it sure was now!! There goes strawberry plantings!!!

Instead of having great intentions of working outside, we turned our energies inside. My wife started the mountain of laundry that having 4 guys in the house can pile up in a hurry.. I fixed breakfast and lunch for the kiddo's, picked up the house, and did some more squirrell chasing.

I had the urge, and the time to write (between folding and putting up clothing) so I was debating on working on Mr. Fixit, Dead at last 3 or a homesteading series. The ideas for the first and last were exploding. I finally decided to do some more on my homesteading series since it was the smaller project. Today I finished an article on cottage foods, and gave ideas and what we do on our homestead with cottage foods at the farm stand and farmer's market. I am thinking for my basic articles I'm going to charge $0.99 and my detailed plans for $2.99. What do you all think? My fiction I am going to keep in smaller chunks and priced to match that also.

And I just realized that I haven't turned on the TV all day... I am turning out to be a lousy football fan this year. At least my sweat pants and big comfy tee shirt were remembered for a day of rest, relaxation and great intentions.

Not that I am promoting a holiday were the pagans were killed and run off their land, but in the spirit of spring, green beer and warming soil! Today I decided to celebrate the day by continuing cleaning the yard up of winter debris, dragging brush to be burned this weekend, cleaning out the rabbit manure that has been accumulating.. and planting..

Yup. Planting. Dug a hole in the ground about 18" around and almost 2' deep. I filled the hole in with 4 spades of rabbit manure to 1 spade of peat moss mixed up. Then I placed the main plant on top of this wonderful mix and filled in around it with the rest and topped with the soil I used to dig the hole. Make sure you water well afterwords to collapse any air pockets in the soil but don't over do it at this point.. We are still in danger of a good hard cold snap.

I planted 3 today in about an hours time, and when I get a chance I will be spreading wood chips around the plants to help hold in the moisture. Mine were planted in somewhat of a high spot, and I had cleared out the area around it of wild blackberries and various weeds till it was almost bare grass.. I planted two varities, chipewa high bush and can't think of the other one.. blue crop high bush? Each plant is supposed to go 6-8 foot across and 8-10 feet high.

Lets see how this will work! I doubt I'll have to fertilize much this year ... And I used up some of the manure that accumulated over the winter months.

Yesterday I wasn't feeling all that well, but one thing I do remember is my father stopping in and telling me to check out BCS tractors. Sort of a walk behind Tractor. At first I was confused. Looked like a big motor on 2 wheels.. then I saw the versatility of the unit and started checking it out some more!

For me, seeing is believing and since I've never seen one before I hit up youtube. One of the first videos I run across is a BCS tilling a new field by a lady.

Ok, please don't take this the wrong way, but I am a bit bigger.. And she was able to handle it, even in the rougher spots of her garden where it gets bogged down towards the end of the video. So I wanted to know beyond a snow blower, rototiller, small brush hog what else could it do?

We are wanting to transform 5 of our acres into a self sustaining farmstead, as well as having enough of a market garden to sell at the local Farmer's Markets. Diversity in planting, staggered planting schedule for maximum harvests are what I am shooting for. Obviously the experiment to do this by hand has progressed veryyyyyyy slowwwwwwllllly. I barely have walking trails cut through half of the property. And since doing it by hand isn't feasable, mechanical help is needed.

A large tractor and implements seemed like the logical place to start, but by doing things this summer by hand, I think something like the Ford 8N I was looking at isn't practical. Sure it would be handy for the few open flat areas but we have hills, a swampy area and a creek not to mention numerous numerous mature oak and maple trees that we want to keep.

Then there's the Orchard we want to try for.. We are wanting to put in at least 20-30 fruit trees and an area I can plant clover and wild flowers for a bee project......

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRbggggggggggggggggggggggg.... too much to do.. But these BCS tractors seemed to fit the bill.

I love to read up and analyze things before I move on something.. And since I don't know anyone with personal knowledge I cruised some of the message boards and found the website of a dealer in Kentucky that not only works on, sells, but knows what other equipment and implements go with it. Me and my dad are thinking .. Road Trip...